Players brawl as Taiwan beat Jordan in close game

Jordan’s Zaid Abbas, left, blocks Taiwan’s Chen Hsin-an, right, as he goes for the hoop during their game at the 2011 William Jones Cup invitational tournament in New Taipei City yesterday.

Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

Lin “The Beast” Chih-chieh banked in a layup with 21 seconds left in the game to put Team Taiwan ahead for good, as they held on to topple undefeated Jordan 77-75 last night in a heated contest at the William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City.

Lin’s spinning drive to the basket was a moment of grace in a game that was full of sloppy play.

The fourth quarter saw a benches-clearing scuffle after Jordan’s Islam Abbass grabbed a defense rebound and swung the ball into the face of Taiwan’s Ho Sho-cheng. Ho’s teammates took exception to the swipe and the ensuing melee delayed the game for several minutes as the referees sorted out the fouls and ejections.

Moment’s later, Jordan’s dominant offensive star Zaid Abbas was ejected from the game after he vehemently disagreed with a foul that was called against him for pushing Chen Hsin-an. Zaid Abbas called for the refs to look at the video replay, which appeared to support his case that Chen took a dive.

Team Taiwan got off to a fast start, jumping out to an 11-2 lead less than three minutes into the contest thanks to a pair of threes and aggressive defense. However, Taiwan’s hot hands quickly cooled as they held onto a five-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter started much like the first, with Taiwan catching fire and pushing their lead to 12 points, before a run by Jordan to finish the first half was capped off by Zaid Abbas’ fade-away three pointer from the corner at the buzzer to knot the game at 34-34 heading into halftime.

Taiwan’s Tseng Wen-ding had an up-and-down night, but his three-pointer with less then three minutes to play erased Jordan’s lead and set up the thrilling finish.

The win moves Tawain to 3-1 and into a tie for second. They next play the United Arab Emirates.